Originally Posted by moondog

The document I posted (thanks to [MENTION=10152965]ngochaitran[/MENTION]) definitely comes from an official Chinese government source, but I want to emphasize yet again, that this point is moot if the airport check in staff are mandated to use TIMATIC as a single source for determining country entry requirements.

Think about it from their perspective: 1. relying on TIMATIC simplifies the task operationally; 2. there is no need to entrust staff to evaluate the credibility or authenticity of materials provided by passengers; and 3. since governments themselves trust TIMATIC (as a general rule), using it as a litmus test absolves airlines from a considerable amount of liability in the event they transport people who are ultimately denied entry.

So, while it's not unreasonable to assume that you might have a good chance of talking your way onto a flight, the idea of planning for a battle in advance strikes me as illogical, especially since you know that hundreds of other Chinese airports are not on TIMATIC's China-TWOV black list.